Organized.

This term my life has become much more organized. I've set out to do better with classes, contacts, and my schedule, in order to be more efficient in my work. I've found that technology I already possesed, has really helped me achieve this. 

I'm thankful that my wife and I invested some personal funds into iPhones the year before we came to China. We knew we were coming here, and we counted the costs to see if it would be a good investment--and it sure was. I'm now able to synchronize all my contacts and addresses, along with my schedule to my phone and computer, and even online. This may seem simple, but it greatly helps when you have contacts on both sides of the planet.

Organizing my classes was also an important objective for this term because it makes teachiing more efficient. Being more efficient in the classroom and making lesson plans makes me a better teacher, as well as gives me more time to do the things I feel are important.

I must also share with you a valuable computer application that has helped me accomplish this feat. It's a Mac program called Bento (after the Japanese box set meal), and it has been  a tool that helps me do the work better.

Getting On Our Knees, in a Critical Way.

Last Saturday a group of us got together to talk about our work. We've worked hard to stay informed about the work of each of our 7 china friends during the year, in case there is anything we can do to help them. However, we branched out and met with a few extra workers that share our same goals and interests. The result was almost three hours of intensive updating, strategizing, and most important, talking to our Father. We share our "short lists" with each other, mentioning people by name and sharing our expectations and desires for those people. Needless to say, we've already seen fruit-bearing from our 3 hour session. 

One of the critical elements to any work is talking to your Father, and we are seeing hard evidence of the benefits of this. I'm sad to say this is one area of the work that I have severely lacked in most places I have lived. But thankfully, this group is more in touch with him, and we encourage each other to keep talking to him. 

At home, it's easy to let this area of your life slip and slack off. In th field, it's a must, or your work is dead. I ask my Father that I won't lose touch with him when I get home, and that my siblings at home will do a better job of talking to Him.

Apparently, I'm a Good Teacher.

I got an email this week from our foreign affairs office. They reported that the student evaluations of the foreign teachers came in. According ot the results, I was the second highest rated teacher among undergraduate classes. I'm not sure how I got to this point. I never really viewed myself as a good teacher, in fact, I've decided recently that I don't ever want to teach--it seems the best teachers don't really teach but just ask questions that others can use to teach themselves. I've also mentioned Before that I want to improve in the classroom. 

Whatever the case, I'm thankful to my father for giving me such great opportunities, and I hope this is another opportunity for me to continue "teaching" others more important lessons than how to correctly pronounce a "TH" sound.

GOOOAAAALLL(s)!!!

in most soccer (or more accurately "futbol") countries, nothing is more exciting than hearing that word screamed in euphoria by a sportscaster. I have personally found myself yelling this word inside my head  since school began--but more out of frustration than delight. I always feel like a new term is a new start, a new beginning, a chance to reinvent yourself all over again. Thus, I really wanted to lay out my goals in order to better myself, and make my work more effective all around.

this is what I've decided:

1. Get organized- from my address book, to class records, to contacts I meet and study with, I need more organization to be more effective with my time and energy.

2. Blog more- as alluded to in my previous blog, I need to be better about iforming people of what's going on.

3. Follow up/through- I have made plenty of contacts and built a lot of relationships already this year. I need to keep up those relationships and improve on them. Following up and being proactive to get invovled in people's lives will help this.

Overall, this has already been a highly successful year (not in numerical terms-that's never been important according to The Book).  We have found ourselves being transformed in ways we never would have imagined over a year ago. Out teamwork has sharpened us and made us accutely aware of our progress in our personal development. On a personal level, I am happy working here and allowing myself to be transformed more and more like the image of the One I follow.

My Wife is a Better Blogger Than I am

I haven't blogged since December. I could go on in this post to explain to you how I was busy finishing final exams and grades from last term, travelled throughout southeast Asia, visiting and edifying families, and getting started with the new term after a teacher orientation in Beijing. But I'm not going to do that. I know I haven't been very good at keeping everyone up to date. I'll just pick up where I left off by saying my wife is a great blogger, and I love how that has been one of her strengths. 

All that being said, I do have some goals for this term, including blogging more. My next post will let you know more about my personal goals this term.

Letter to Santa

This past week I told my students we were writing formal business letters in class. Because my class is a listening/speaking class, some of them were a bit surprised. I told them children in America learn how to write business letters from a very early age--which surprised them even more. I told them, however, that most children in America don't use the common salutation, "to whom it may concern," but they do, in fact, know who they are writing to--so they address their letters, "Dear Santa." As a result (and for good English practice), I had all my students write letters to Santa. Having over 100 Chinese university underclassmen write letters to St. Nick for the first time was pretty entertaining--and insightful. I learned quite a bit about what was going in their minds and hearts through the silly exercise.


So, I thought it would be a good idea for me to post my letter to Santa this year in my blog:


Dear Santa,


I must say time has flown since last Christmas, with tons of changes to the world and to my life (of course, it's probably like that for you every year!). Since last year I've gotten married, more than doubled the size of my extended family, and moved to China (where business seems pretty slow for you). I can honestly say I've tried my hardest to stay on your nice list this year--and feel like of done a decent job (with one or two exceptions). Without bothering you about details you already know, I'd like to skip ahead to a few requests I've been thinking about on my wish list this year. 


As you know, not every country has nice things like we do back home, and that really puts things into perspective when you're trying to assemble a good wish list. Last time I lived in China, I really just wanted warm clothes for Christmas (b/c I didn't prepare very well for winter). But I feel like that is under control this year (see my blog). Everything in Hangzhou is much nicer than my previous town, and I feel like we have most of the Western amenities we could want. The only things I can think of are:


1. Pepperidge Farm Goldfish (they don't sell the plain cheddar ones here)
2. Gatorade powdered mix (fruit punch is my favorite flavor)
3. Gold Bond powder (for when baby powder just isn't enough)
4. Chic-fil-a (I know that's a stretch, but maybe a long term goal to set in China's development)


If you could meet these request, Christmas and the spring semester would be much more jolly for me. However, I have found that my list of intangible things seems to have grown over the last year--and most directly relate to living in Hangzhou.


1. Feedback - I know it's hard for people to find time to communicate (I'm usually at the top of that list). But I feel a real need to get some feedback from people back home. I know they can't always know everything to tell us whether we're doing a great or terrible job, but if you could just let them know we'd love to get some feedback (even if it's to say we don't communicate enough information with them, or we don't communicate often enough), that would be really helpful to us and give us a better idea of how we need to communicate back home.


2. Financial Support - This is always a sensitive subject for me, Santa, but I feel like I can share it with you. As you know most of us are not finished with grad school. And while a break from taking classes is nice (and very rewarding with our current jobs), it doesn't give us a break from paying back undergraduate student loans. A few of us are concerned that we don't have the financial support to make it through the year and back to the States in July. We don't make enough on our salaries here, and we all trust our Father to help take care of us, but we felt like it was also something we could share with you.


3. Moral Support - Just as important to us as feedback and funds, it's very encouraging to hear how people's lives are going back home. Yes, we Skype with our families and keep up with some friends on facebook and other ways, but sometimes it just helps to get an update about what's going on back with people we love in the places we love. We know a lot of people care about us, think about us, and keep up with us on all of our blogs, twitter feeds, facebooks, and website, and we're really excited about keeping them informed. If you could just help them to know that telling us what's going on with them, good and bad, really helps us do a better job here.


Santa, I know at this point you probably wish I had just kept going with my list of goldfish, gatorade, and goldbond. And I know the last part of this letter is hard to wrap in paper and put a bow on by Dec. 25. But I know how hard your little elves work, and I'm sure you know what it's like to be isolated at times, living in the North Pole. I wish you well as you go through "crunch time" with the presents, reindeer, and sleigh. Please give my regards to Rudolph, Buddy the Elf, and of course, Mrs. Claus.


Sincerely yours,


Kyle

Family is Family

We've really been amazed at what has been happening. Within two weeks we met some amazing new people through our "English evenings," and even met some family members we didn't know we had (see Becca's post here). Suddenly, we found ourselves quite busy.

One unique thing about Chinese Families is that here, Family is Family. If someone meets another Relative, they don't immediately ask, "What part of the family do you belong to?"  Instead, they just know they come from the same Ancestor, and His name is at the top of every part of the family. Unfortunately, this has become a problem in the States, because not all of the family gets along. They disagree about some things and, as a result, some parts of the family don't associate with or talk to other parts of the family. But this is not the case in China. Family is a high priority for all of the family members, and they easily accept each other for who they are.
It's also unfortunate that many Americans try to share thier family problems with young, Chinese families. They pass on their baggage and cause a lot of confusion for the Chinese families.

I know that some of the Chinese families I've met aren't perfect, or even do things like my family back home. But I don't believe it's my job to air dirty laundry in China and teach different parts of families to dislike, not get along with, or even hate each other. If they do have problems or don't have everything right, it's our job to help them figure it out or even, "show them the way more perfectly" (my personal paraphrase of a quote from a brother of mine long ago).

It's amazing to me that the families in China get along so well and the only ones who don't can thank some Westerner for sowing discord in their family. In China, Family is Family, and I'm thankful for that.